with apologies to wikipedia;
Mass hysteria
Main article: Mass hysteria
The term also occurs in the phrase mass hysteria to describe mass public near-panic reactions. It is commonly applied to the waves of popular medical problems that "someone repeatedly asks the same thing over and over" in response to news articles.
A similar usage refers to any sort of "public wave" phenomenon, and has been used to describe the periodic widespread reappearance and public interest in UFO reports, beach access, and similar examples. Also, when information, real or fake, becomes misinterpreted but believed, e.g. surfrider's mission statement.
Hysteria is often associated with movements like the Salem Witch Trials, McCarthyism, the First Red Scare, the Second Red Scare, Terrorism, and Satanic ritual abuse, where it is better understood through the related sociological term of moral panic over someone walking on the sand.
i think the beating the dead horse photo is about to rear it's ugly head. BMBW, still hoping for a well thought out response to any of my replies that you asked for.